What Does Nehemiah 7:68 Mean?
Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, and their mules two hundred and forty-five.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Their horses, seven hundred thirty and six: their mules, two hundred forty and five:THE KEY
The Hebrew for “mules” shares its three-letter root with the verb “to separate,” giving this animal count an echo English leaves hidden.
THE MEANING
Horses and mules stand here as counted, physical means of movement. Their exact numbers make practical capacity part of a community’s visible record, alongside its people and households.
THE ROOT
פִּרְדֵיהֶם
pirdêhem
GROWS FROM
פרד
to separate, divide, or part
“mules” in this verse is pirdêhem. The Hebrew word for mule, פֶּרֶד (pered), shares its root with the verb for separating or dividing. The verse uses it plainly as an animal in an inventory, while the shared root adds an echo of distinction beside the separately counted horses.
ALSO GROWS
parad: to separate, divide
פָּרַד
This verb shares the seed in “mules,” adding an echo of separation to the inventory’s distinct animal categories.
nifrad: to be separated, part from
נִפְרַד
This form carries the same root into the state of being apart, reinforcing the root’s sense of distinction.
THE PATTERN
A community’s life is recorded through the concrete means it moves and shares.
And a great mixture went up with them also, and flocks and herds, even very much livestock.Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, their mules two hundred and forty-five.For none among them lacked, for as many as owned fields or houses sold them and carried the prices of what was sold,THE THREAD
Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, their mules two hundred and forty-five.Ezra 2:66 repeats this same tally, including the Hebrew words for horses and mules. The shared root of פֶּרֶד (pered, mule) and פָּרַד (parad, separate) appears in both lines, where the animals are listed as distinct counts.
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